20mm WW2 6th Armoured Div

Back to looking at my 20mm WW2 stuff again. My other 20mm British Armoured Div based for Megablitz is rather older than 1st AD, and was originally aimed at Tunisia games. It features some fairly venerable vehicles from my 1970s 20mm collection.

Here it is in its box, like 1st AD, it fits fairly neatly, although those AFV bases are quite big.

The armoured brigade. Three tank regiments and a motorised infantry battalion. This is based on 6th AD in Tunisia (Bladeforce etc) which actually had a battalion of US Lees attached. As it is 1942, the tanks are all camouflaged in SSC2 brown with black disruptive patterns.

The junior regiment (Tac number 53). A plastic Valentine, I'm guessing Matchbox, or maybe Revell? I picked this up in a cheap box of second hand plastic tanks and it just needed a little bit of tlc and repainting. Valentines featured a lot in Tunisia, including at the Battle of Kasserine Pass.

The middle regiment (52). The good old Airfix Crusader, made up as the 6dr version. Despite the Airifx box art, it is highly improbable that they arrived in Tunisia in Bronze Green(!). A lovely model, a local purchase from the one remaining model shop in Sheffield, which  I assembled.

The senior regiment (51). My very battered old Airfix Lee, one of the survivors of the school wargames club. Why wouldn't you want 5 MGs?  This is painted with SCC2 upperworks and OD running gear, a scheme which wasn't uncommon with early Lend Lease stuff. Really it should be OD all over as it was a US unit on loan, but it fits in better like this.

The motor battalion. An Airfix carrier and a couple of Airfix infantrymen. The carrier is from a pair of towed 6pdrs which made up my 'anti-tank platoon' used with the old Charles Grant 'Battle' rules.

The lorried infantry brigade. Three infantry battalions and a lorry.

The brigade transport is a Frontline resin model. Looks like I've forgotten to add the white bits to the windscreen on this one!

The infantry are more Airfix figures, all in similar poses (firing).

Royal Artillery. An Airfix 25pdr (I'm pretty quick at putting these together now), and an Airfix 6pdr and carrier, more survivors from the 1970s.

Recce Regiment. An armoured Car and two scout cars. The Armoured Car is a Matchbox Daimler.

The second squadron has a Daimler Dingo. I'm going to say Matchbox? , a delightful little model in any case. 

And the third squadron has a rather blobby Frontline resin M3 Scout Car.

Divisional assets. The Royal Engineers and a Light AA Regiment.

This SP 20mm Crusader is a conversion I did decades based on the Airfix Crusader chassis. I think the design was in Airfix magazine (another Gerald Scarborough conversion) . The turret was quite a challenge as I recall.

Divisional HQ. The Tac HQ and Royal Signals Corps regiment.

The divisional commander rides a Hasegawa jeep. Not sure where the driver in beret came from, it is possibly a headswap with the supplied driver figure. RTR beret, naturally.

The signals regiment has a couple of Arifix figures and one of the Frontline resin 15cwt radio trucks.

This is a really nice model, very crisp.

Divisional logistics. RASC Fuel and transport columns.

The transport column is another Frontline lorry.

While the fuel column is one of my venerable Airfix bendy trucks with a few oil drums in the back. These were originally in German three colour camo and provided wheeled transport for my Charles Grant era Airfix Germans. It was so nice having some truck models you didn't need to stick togther (or cost a fortune like Roco ones did).

Like 1st AD, it is fairly easy to convert this one into an infantry division by adding some infantry and artillery bases. I've also got a stock of spare Shermans and Cromwells so I can swap the tanks out for later war models if required.